Preferential Treatment The History and Cost of Tax Exemptions, Credits, and Loopholes in Canada

Preferential tax treatments such as tax exemptions, credits, and loopholes have become a cash cow for Canada’s rich. This report analyzes the country’s 10 costliest preferential tax treatments, starting with the richest 10% of Canadians, which is responsible for 42 per cent of the federal money spent on these types of tax expenditures (up from 36% in 1992).

This report provides the federal government with a range of preferential tax treatments that, if eliminated, could save billions in federal dollars lost to tax cuts, tax credits, and tax loopholes. It is also an unpleasant reminder that this type of preferential tax treatment makes Canada’s federal tax system more regressive, and exacerbates after-tax income inequality.